MJC

Absolutely spot on. And whatever happens this season we are well shot of Alexander as the guy was taking us absolutely nowhere and he thought Josh Morris was an acceptable addition to the squad he finished last season with.

I was referring to Robinson’s record against Celtic. But yes that SF against Rangers was a superb result, though it was also the last time we got such a big win and we’re almost five years to the day since then. I don’t see us getting anything like that against either of them any time soon, if ever.

You’ll more likely than not be right about that, but Celtic haven’t been convincing by their standards over the past month and us at home in a Cup tie might level things up a bit. However… …As much as this is true, we just don’t get results like that against Celtic (or Rangers) nowadays. Robinson was with us for almost four years and had several of the players that he managed to get a win against Celtic last month with St.Mirren, but he never really got near that with us. Putting it simply, if Celtic ‘turn up’ on Wednesday night then we’ll be lucky to only lose by five goals. If they are off their game by any stretch then we won’t have the quality, the luck or the bottle to take advantage of it.

I don’t think we’ll be relegated this season but there is no chance of us getting top six IMO. We just don’t have goals in us and lack forward options as was all to evident today.

I’ve never liked that prick. A perma-raging moaning arsehole who frequently gets away with snidey kicks and elbows on opponents. The fact that he’s also never been on the losing side at Fir Park, even when he was on loan at Dunfermline in 2006 makes it all the more annoying.

To be fair to Hammell he was thrown in at the deep end with the season already underway and without the benefit of a full close season/transfer window to work with. By the time he was officially appointed most potential targets for us would have already been snapped up whilst we were left with Josh Morris as our main summer signing. That said brining in an injury prone Moult, a youngster on loan from Leeds and a player who did absolutely nothing to impress during his previous spell with us represented some big gambles which so far don’t appear to be paying off.

If he can’t get fit then he’s not. We knew signing him was a gamble but he’s got nowhere near the required fitness level yet and that’s why he’s yet to start a game or and make a meaningful contribution.

2-2 after 90 minutes. Celtic will go 1-0 up early on and look as though they will run up a cricket score. Then from nowhere we will equalise with an own goal. The second half will be dominated by Celtic but we’ll hang in somehow and then amazingly we’ll go 2-1 up thanks to another own goal. Then Celtic will equalise in the 9th minute of the 6 allotted injury time minutes and go on to win it either after extra time or penalties. Heartbreak.

Well that was depressingly familiar. I’ve seen that type of game over and over against Rangers over the years. We lack quality and belief going forward and defensive mistakes are our undoing. I’m not a fan of Efford but compared to Morris he is a clear upgrade. Morris simply won’t do, we would be as well starting the game with a man down. I’m pleased to see McKinstry get off the mark today but overall he was poor and ineffective. Looking ahead to our next few league fixtures it’s hard to see where our next points are coming from.

A nothing game so far to be honest. ”They’re there for the taking” is a phrase that has been said many, many times on here about games against this lot over the past twenty years but today I think they really are there for the taking. But do we have what it takes to ‘take’ them? Unfortunately we just haven’t looked sharp enough up front and our use of the ball is dreadful. At the moment this has 0-0 written all over it.

I get we’re light in options due to injuries but I’ve seen nothing of Morris yet to suggest he is anywhere near good enough at this level. Its good to see McKinstry starting though, hopefully today is the day he can show what he can do. Despite the lineup I’m still strangely confident we’ll get something here.

Josh fucking Morris starts No Moult either, not even on the bench so take he’s injured.

From what I’ve seen of Rangers they really struggle with crosses into their box and on top of their goalkeeper. So we need to get balls into that box and get our big men like KvV, Moult or even our CBs up there when we get a set piece opportunity. My worry is that we lose an early goal and we do our usual and let our heads go down. If that happens then we will get nothing and it’ll be another three goal defeat at least. However I genuinely think that is our best chance of getting that all elusive win in this fixture tomorrow if we approach it the right way and don’t bend over the minute anything goes against us.

Alot of the draws we’ve had over the last twenty years have been tinged with frustration that we didn’t get the win. However that 3-3 Hartley game was hugely satisfying as we’d been all over them in the second half but couldn’t find the equaliser and it looked like yet another game that they would sneak away with the points with us having zero luck. Then Hartley pops up in the dying seconds to level it resulting in wild celebrations.

If we don’t win on Sunday then we will go more than twenty years without a league win in this fixture, as our next meeting with them is on 28th Dec, two days after the 20th anniversary of that day Faddy put them to the sword. In all likelihood we will lose but I suppose you never know. 2-1 Motherwell, based on nothing more than blind optimism. Moult to score the winner almost five years to the day from his famous Hampden goal.

Yip stonewaller. Won’t be long now til VAR is introduced and decisions like that are what you hope will be picked up on.

I see where you’re coming from but when did we come close to a result like that at home against Aberdeen? I know we won 3-0 at Pittodrie in September 2020 but our recent home results in that fixture have tended to be tight. If anything that result tonight will work against us when we face them in two weeks time, as they will be fired up to prevent a repeat.

We’re in a horrible run of fixtures. The Ross County game being re-scheduled gave us a more winnable fixture amongst a run of Hearts, Celtic, Hibs, Rangers, Aberdeen, Dundee Utd, Hearts. With the team we’ve got we were always going to be hard pushed to pick up points from that run of fixtures. That’s why the win in Dingwall was so crucial as we could easily pick up nothing in our next five league matches.

He looks way off it physically at this level. I don’t know about out on loan but he needs to seriously work in the gym before he can be a regular starter for us in the league.

Efford has improved in the last couple of games, I’ll give him that but he still lacks the end product. He has looked more of a team player though and his fitness looks better. Shields on the other hand just won’t do, he is a lower league level player I’m afraid.

They’re definitely not ‘great’ by any stretch of the imagination but they are a better team than us man for man. Unfortunately for us we made things harder for ourselves with a stupid and preventable red card just as we did last season against them in the Cup at Fir Park. But you’re right saying that they have carried some amount of luck so far this season. Hearts wiped the floor with them in the Edinburgh derby but couldn’t kill them off and they celebrated a last gasp equaliser like they’d won the World Cup and they did the same when they scored a last minute equaliser against a nine man Rangers. Then today we get a player red carded in a fairly even game and they were able to snatch it. It’s hugely frustrating.

Disappointing result but we can’t complain. If you are ineffective going forward and creating chances then you won’t win games and as soon as we went down to 10 men there was only going to be one winner. Going forward we need to be starting McKinstry ahead of either Efford or Shields as neither of them are what we need at this level.

Been coming unfortunately.

Nothing in it so far. We’ve looked weak in the middle but we’ve not been outplayed by any means. If we score first here we’ll win.

Come on Motherwell intae these Trainspotting bams!!